China Says 21 Died In Moslem Riot

April 23, 1990|By Uli Schmetzer, Chicago Tribune.

BEIJING — Twenty-one people died when Moslem mobs armed with petrol bombs and firearms clashed with Chinese security forces in northwestern Xinjiang province this month, according to the first official Chinese report on what authorities have labeled ``a counter-revolutionary armed rebellion.``

It was the first known uprising since the People`s Liberation Army brutally suppressed the democracy movement in Beijing last June. That movement also was classified officially as a counter-revolution, a charge equivalent to treason.

The report, carried Sunday by Xinjiang provincial television, described how ``frenzied`` Moslem mobs rampaged through a city, fire-bombed police vehicles and indiscriminately attacked security personnel. Six police and government officials and 15 civilians died in the two days of violence on April 5 and 6, the report said.

The short statement, the first official admission of riots in the remote area near the Soviet border, was picked up by the British Broadcasting Corp. It blamed escaped murderers, ex-convicts and criminals for ``inciting the ill- informed masses to make trouble.``

The report said the rebellion broke out at Akto, a small oasis city 50 miles south of Kashgar, at a religious festival on April 5. During the two days of fighting, it said, 19 security men were injured. But the report did not mention casualty figures for civilians wounded after troops were airlifted into the region to quell the unrest.

Chinese sources in Urumqi, the provincial capital, said as many as 70 people were killed during riots in several cities on the fringe of the Taklimakan Desert, where Turkic Moslems have rebelled periodically against their Chinese masters for more than a century. They want a separate state, East Turkestan, which became a reality briefly in 1944.

Some 7.6 million people, more than half of Xinjiang`s population, are Moslems whose call for religious and ethnic freedom has been stimulated in recent months by the unrest of their cousins across the border in the Soviet republics.

``Cadres need to take a clear-cut and firm stand and resolutely deal a telling blow against all separatist and sabotage activities,`` Tomur Damawat, chairman of the Xinjiang province government, was quoted as saying on a news item carried by the official New China news agency.

The mention of sabotage appeared to confirm unofficial reports that separatists and Moslem militants in recent months had sabotaged government mines and oil pipes.

Independent sources said the riots at Akto were sparked by the government`s refusal to allow the construction of a mosque and a decision to close six Islamic schools, considered hotbeds of separatism.

Chinese authorities two weeks ago closed Xinjiang to all foreigners and advised Pakistan that a new border pass would not be opened as scheduled next month due to a landslide.